


My Leader, My Love

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blue Paladin Allura (Voltron), Bonding, F/F, Getting to Know Each Other, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-10 01:10:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12288066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Allura and Pidge bond over being Paladins, and over lost family.





	My Leader, My Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WolffyLuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolffyLuna/gifts).



Pidge always adored the poster her mother owned that contrasted the difference between Boss and Leader. Her mother had plastered it at her workplace where her tyrant of a manager would see it each time he barked orders at them. That was back when Colleen Holt still could laugh. When she could be daring to tack on such as biting poster for her boss to see. Back before the tragedy of the Kerberos mission. 

The poster displayed two illustrations. On top was the silhouette of a man roaring down at lesser men as they toiled together, carrying the large heavy desk upon which sat the man marked as “boss.” In the bottom half showed the silhouette of a man labeled as “leader” taking the reins and toiling along with his men, shouldering the burdens along with them. 

For Colleen, it was to remind her tyrannical manager that he was a no-good boss and a slave-driver. To Pidge, that poster came back to her each time she thought of Princess Allura. 

Allura’s position as Princess of Altea placed her above the rest of Team Voltron. The Lions were, ultimately, hers. The Castle of Lions were hers. The final say were hers. The pilots of the lions, the Paladins, served her. Coran, the royal advisor of King Alfor, now served her. 

But never was Allura the _boss_. She toiled with them, fought alongside them, broke into sweat, pushed her mind and body to the limit several times, once to the point of sickness and even near death, and even sacrificed herself to ensure the safety of one of their lives, an act none ever forgot. 

She was unbelievable, a princess warrior that would have impressed both Xena and Sailor Moon (Pidge was a huge fan; Matt and her had downloaded all the episodes from the public domain archives; the shows of past decades were _amazing_.) 

Just when Pidge was done being impressed, Allura always did something else to steal the words from her tongue. 

And steal the breath from her lips. 

And stray her mind towards that long wavy hair and her laughter, while Pidge should have been focusing on something else (or just sat and waited for something to finish downloading on her laptop. Her mind did sometimes wander.) 

And of course, this only ever resolved Pidge to give the mission her all. As the Green Paladin, she would serve the Princess with utmost loyalty and devotion, and love. She was a Paladin, after all, and Allura was the princess she served. Even if Allura herself had become a Paladin among them in the fight against the Galra Empire.

⁂

The day Pidge saw Allura in her new armor, her heart skipped a beat. It had been tragic losing Shiro. He was a mentor and a friend, someone who was closest to Matt and her dad before they were lost. But the news of the new Paladin, and knowing it was her, Allura, made it worthwhile.

They were together, in a way.

⁂

Allura sat amongst them, eager to place on the mind-melding device. The Paladins had used it less and less the more comfortable they had become with one another, but now with Shiro gone, they needed to resume some of the old practices once more to align her with the rest of them.

She had seen snippets of their minds before while observing them from afar. It was never an easy experience, seeing the dearest thing to their hearts flash before the entire team before they gave it up for their duties as Paladins of Voltron. But it had to be done if they were to think as one. As a team.

Now that she sat with them as one of the Paladins, Allura couldn’t help feeling a bit jittery. 

Hunk’s family flashed along with him helping his mother and grandfather in the kitchen, before it all disappeared, forming into a giant yellow lion. Then came Lance and an entire scene of his extended family at what must have been a family event, soon followed by the red lion. 

Keith’s had changed. What was once an old lone shack in the middle of a desert had become Shiro, just Shiro. With difficulty, it formed into the Black Lion. No one said anything. 

Pidge also was struggling. From Coran Allura learned that Pidge was getting close to finding the whereabouts of her brother Matt. Still no word on her father, but in the meantime she had narrowed her focus on hunting him down. The bags under her eyes indicated that she had barely slept for days. 

The image of her and Matt flashed before them, and froze. 

“Pidge…” Keith said softly after a while. Long ago the team had argued with her over this, but they had come a long way. Keith was offering a hand over hers in comfort. Of course; he too had just struggled with the thought of Shiro. 

“Sorry,” Pidge said. Her eyes glanced up, meeting Allura’s and instantly turning red before she closed them again and tried to focus. 

“Perhaps if I go first?” Allura offered. 

Pidge glanced back up, slightly hurt and confused. 

“I do not mean to offend,” Allura said, smiling. “But perhaps this might help you to relax?” 

Pidge thought for a few moments before finally nodding her head. The image of herself and Matt still flashed before them. Allura smiled sadly at the photograph. 

Allura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The image that flashed before her eyes made her almost laugh. The rest of the team gave a soft gasp. 

She was strolling past a garden of juniberries, her father and mother beside her. The spring wind was warm and gentle across her face and she was laughing. A child then, she turned to smile brightly at her beloved parents. 

A tear rolled down, and she slowly let the image go, slipping into only thought of the Blue Lion. It wasn’t easy. As much as she willed herself to think of Blue, she could still feel the gentle breeze. She could almost hear her mother’s voice, an echo from ten thousand years ago, calling for her. 

Finally, after much difficulty, the image dissolved as the Blue Lion stepped into place. When she glanced up, it was to find every single one of her fellow Paladins looking misty-eyed. 

“Whoa, did…everyone else just feel that?” Hunk asked. “I thought I smelled flowers…and my mom’s cooking, and heard my grandma singing…” 

Pidge closed her eyes, eyebrows furrowed, and the photograph melted into the Green Lion.

⁂

“Looks like we all have someone who we have trouble letting go of,” Allura said later on, catching up to Pidge. They were alone in the halls after everyone else had dispersed.

“Yeah…thank you for that back there,” Pidge said. “We all suddenly _felt_ like we were back there reliving something. Somehow it helped to let them go for a while.” 

Allura nodded and smiled. “I figured our thoughts were acting as an obstacle. I wanted to see if something else could help, if we got a little taste of it, something to satisfy our minds and hearts so we could find it easier to let it go for a while, and it looked like it had. I’m glad it worked for you, Pidge. But we won’t stop looking for Matt either.” 

Pidge shrugged. “I keep going back and checking to see if there’s been any changes on his location. If there has, I want to make sure I can find him again. If he’s been in one place for a long time, then I begin to worry something’s happened.” 

Allura smiled and cupped a hand over Pidge’s shoulder. “I was like that too when Father sent Mother away with a group of Alteans. I chose to fight alongside my Father. I kept an eye on my Mother’s ship’s whereabouts until I was sent into sleep.” 

“That must have been nerve-wrecking.” 

Allura nodded. 

“What is it like? Having a brother? I never had siblings. My parents never tried again for other children because things were getting more heated between them and Zarkon.” 

They began walking down the hall. 

“Well,” Pidge said, considering the question seriously, “they can drive you really _quiznaking_ mad. If you think about it, we’re two individuals who just so happened to share the same set of parents having to cooperate under the same roof. Sometimes we wanted to kill each other. Other times we would die for each other.” 

Pidge grinned. “And if— _when_ —you met Matt, don’t believe him if he says he could beat me at any video game. I was always the better one.”

Allura chuckled. “So you wanted to rip your hair apart but also loved each other? I felt like that about my parents sometimes. And about the Paladins. You really are like my family.” 

Pidge’s head bowed for a moment, an act Allura didn’t miss. 

“Oh course, that’s figuratively speaking,” Allura said. She bent over and whispered into Pidge’s ear. “Other brave Paladins, I’m curious to know more about in a different manner, if they would welcome me.” 

Pidge’s eyes widened at that, but that didn’t stop the grin. 

“In fact, I believe there was a minor technical problem with the scanners over on the observation deck,” Allura said. “Would you care to join me there and we can…talk more while you help me fix it?” She threw a wink in Pidge’s direction that brought out a great grin. 

“It’d be an honor to serve you, Princess!” Pidge said in a way that made Allura chuckle and blush. “And talk, of course!”


End file.
